New Factors and Prerequisites for the Economic Zoning of Russia

Economic zoning in the USSR was focused on the practical tasks, first of all, comprehensive planning for the long-term development of the national economy. In the 1990s, with the beginning of radical political and economic transformations in the country, the economic zoning lost its practical significance. However, even under market economy, the objective processes of territorial division of labor, industrial and technological connectivity of enterprises and companies still persist, as well as, agglomeration processes. Recently, new factors and prerequisites for the growing importance of economic zoning have emerged, such as the restoration of multilevel strategic planning, changes in the geopolitical situation of the country’s development and the need to achieve industrial and technological sovereignty. With this background it seems that the need to take into account the objective processes of complex formation and district formation, and to perform a new multi-level economic zoning of Russia on this basis sharply increases. The article provides a possible scheme of seven large economic regions and 22 mesorayons. The main links of production and technological chains and priority activities are identified for the large regions. Such zoning could be useful for the long-term planning of sustainable development of the country and its regions.